


Great as in Opal's music?

by valeria_02



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, bagpipes, not actually, ridiculous music, they're uilleann pipes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 00:43:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13329882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valeria_02/pseuds/valeria_02
Summary: Adam's neighbor, who he has never met, is driving him crazy every Thursday with their restless bagpipe practice and other weird habits. He's put up with it long enough, and finally decides to do something about it the day his career perfomance is put on the line.Based on this Tumblr post: http://theronancycle.tumblr.com/post/167503864602/au-where-adam-has-had-it-up-to-here-with-his-next





	Great as in Opal's music?

It was on the week of one of the most important cases of his career that Adam Parrish decided enough was enough.

Tomorrow Adam needed to turn an important document’s review to his boss. It had not occurred to him that today, out of all days, was a Thursday, and Thursdays meant horrible bagpipe practice sounds from his neighbor next door. This, combined with the restless running around and shouting in languages that Adam couldn’t recognize, was turning out to be a lot more trying than he had initially thought. He’d been able to work and study under far worse conditions --his childhood and college years had proved that--, but it was downright impossible for him to get anything done with some-- _talentless and utterly shit_ bagpipe music every time he even dared to try to read his research papers.

Adam Parrish was a creature of logic and reason. This usually meant that when a problem presented itself, his immediate response was to come up with a rational solution. It wasn’t difficult for him to get riled up when facing a problem; what was unusual though, was letting it get the best of him.

This time, as he started reading the document he had to review by tomorrow for maybe the tenth time, the bagpipe practice was the last thing he wanted to hear in the world.

Because Adam Parrish just had bad luck like that, bagpipe practice was what he got.

He tried to breathe. Everyone had the right to do whatever they pleased on their apartment. That was one of the reasons he’d moved here in the first place. If he just concentrated a little more, and maybe got a pair of headphones and a cup of coffee…

One particularly long note that felt like a deliberate attempt at butchering his only good ear was what finally set him off. Adam stood up abruptly, without caring whether his pencil fell off the table or not, and started towards the door of his own apartment. What would he say when he got there? He hadn't planned an appropiate course of action, but it didn't matter anymore, because he was already knocking on his neighbor's door a few moments later. This was why he didn't make rushed decisions. Just when he was about to walk back to his own apartment before anyone opened the door, he heard someone shout in a vaguely familiar language and another person stomp in his direction right after.

He didn’t know who he was expecting to see at the door, but it was definitely not _this_. How had he managed to go years without meeting his neighbor? With his blue eyes, high cheekbones and fair skin, the man looked like he was one of the fancy statues that stood outside of the building he worked at, if they were sentient, and had tattoos peeking on their necks. If this was another person, in another situation, Adam thought he would’ve asked him out immediately.

No. He came here for an specific reason. _The bagpipes._

“Hey. I’m Adam, your neighbor” he started, and when he saw no signs of the man greeting him back, he continued, now feeling his annoyance overpowering his momentary surprise. “Are you the person playing the bagpipes? Because--“

“They’re not bagpipes.”

“What?”

“Not bagpipes. They’re Uilleann pipes”

“That’s not the point” Adam snapped, now feeling the same frustration that drove him out of his apartment so quickly. He thought he’d seen the corner of his neighbor’s mouth lift, but he ignored that in order to finish their conversation quickly. “I need to get some urgent work done, and for the love of God, the bagpipes are--“

“Not bagpipes--“

“I know! I know they’re not bagpipes but whatever instrument you’re playing is making it impossible to concentrate and I really need to get this done and--"

“Kerah! Who’s that?”

A little girl came running towards the door wearing some kind of boots and a skull cap, but most importantly, clutching was he assumed to be the damned Uilleann pipes his neighbor was giving him shit about. Adam sighed. This wasn’t going to end well, he could already tell.

“Adam. Next door neighbor” he replied curtly. Adam felt a weird kind of relief when it became obvious that his dry answers were not reserved for him, specifically.

“Hi Adam!” greeted Opal, and he couldn’t help but smile down at her. She looked adorable, if he was being honest. “Did you come to hear me play?”

Adam didn’t know what to answer to that. He didn’t want to be the heartless monster that told Opal to stop playing the pipes, but he also needed to finish his work. His neighbor (Kerah?) seemed to catch onto this, and with a neutral expression he turned to Opal and patted her on the head.

“No, Opal. Actually, Adam here came to tell us that--"

“I just came to tell you that…” Adam interrupted, not wanting Opal to know the real reason he was here. “That… Your music is very… Beautiful” he sighed, defeated.

“Really?” Opal asked enthusiastically. Her grip on the pipes had become stronger, and they produced a sound that could very accurately picture how Adam was feeling on the inside.

“Yes, really” Adam said. It was truly a wonder that Opal seemed unable to catch the reluctance on his voice, or the shit eating grin _Kerah_ was directing at him right now.

Who could’ve guessed that his neighbor was such an annoying prick.

“Well” he said, with a dangerous glint on his eyes. “Since you’re clearly such a _fan_ , why don’t you come over to listen next week?” Opal looked delighted at the suggestion. “So she can get used to having a public and all that, right, shithead?” this last part was directed at the squealing girl at his side, who could not stay put any longer, it seemed.

While Opal blabbered on about how great it would be for Adam to come listen to her pipe practice, Adam, ever the cautious man, did a quick rescheduling of all the things he had for next Thursday and found that it would be surprisingly easy to clear his afternoon. He’d be damned if he let his neighbor get away with this, specially when he looked so annoyingly handsome while trying to make his life impossible.

“Sure” he finally said, smirking back at the man in front of him. He didn’t look even the last bit deterred, but it was probably because he knew that he wouldn’t regret it until he was actually listening to the pipes up and close. “Next Thursday at 7pm right?”

“Yes! We’ll be waiting for you!” said Opal as she excitedly hopped around. Adam’s smile shifted to something a little fonder. This kid would be the death of him, he thought.

“Sure we will” finished the man, as if he could read Adam’s mind.

And that was that.

 

Well, not exactly. The following days Adam seemed to encounter Opal and her teacher (dad? Brother?) outside of their apartment a suspicious amount of times, considering he’d managed to go at least a year without ever meeting them. It wasn’t exactly a bad thing, if he was being honest, but it sure did catch his attention, at least enough for it to become something relevant to comment while eating lunch with Blue and her boyfriend.

Gansey was a whole other subject. He’d met Blue in the most disastrous of ways some years ago, and since then they’d become rather inseparable. Adam had never seen Blue so in love with someone before, and even if at the beginning he’d had some differences with Gansey, the guy could really grow on someone. In fact, these weekly lunches had been his idea, and a very appreciated one, by the way. Adam could barely take time off work to catch up with his friends, but lunch wasn’t a problem for him, and it had been Gansey’s idea to use this time to chat a little between the three of them.

“So what, you just said yes?” asked Blue, while trying to not burst out laughing at the mere idea of Adam enjoying some kid’s pipe music. Gansey seemed a little more considerate of his reasons, and he was actually smiling rather happily at Adam.

Sometimes it was baffling how much Gansey liked him.

“Well, yeah? It wasn’t as if I could have said no, you know?” Blue laughed at this, and Adam assumed that she didn’t, in fact, _know_ , ”Really! She was just so excited because I said her music was great. You should’ve seen her face-- No, actually, _you_ should’ve talked to her, I’d like to see if you would have been capable of saying no.”

“I’m sure Adam did what he thought was the most reasonable thing, Blue” Gansey said, patting Adam’s shoulder. He’d never hesitate to jump on Adam’s defense. “Adam, you should arrange some things so we can meet these neighbors of yours. I’d love to listen to the little girl play. I’m sure it’s rather lovely”.

Blue cackled, and Adam buried his face in his hands. Sometimes, Gansey’s reassurance was a little bit embarrassing.

 

When Thursday came around, Adam found he was dreading the thought of going to his neighbor’s place more than he had all week. He didn’t know which part was making him regret this the most, but it probably had something to do with the noise that would most likely make him completely deaf once and for all.

It was only a few minutes until 7pm, but Adam had nothing else to do but sit around and wait. He’d been able to work really well on his paper last week, after he’d tried to stop the bagpipe situation. Well, not _the bagpipe_ situation, the Uilleann pipes. It was such a pretentious name for an instrument, anyway.

He didn’t know whether Opal had just decided to stop playing that day, or if maybe _Kerah_ had talked her out of it, but he was feeling decidedly grateful that things happened the way they did. He’d been considering going out and spending precious spare money on eating dinner at some crappy place where he could be finally quiet, but, after all, it wasn’t necessary.

That was one of the main reasons he was forcing himself to go knock on their door right now. And a promise was a promise, anyway; he couldn’t just not show up and disappoint Opal like that.

His knocking was answered immediately, as the man from last time opened the door with a lot more force than necessary. It brought some unpleasant memories back, but he tried his best to swallow them.

“And here I was thinking you’d ever show up” he said with a smirk, stepping aside to let Adam into his apartment.

“I said I’d come by 7” Adam shrugged, and entered the place. It couldn't possibly have been that late, right? He quickly glanced at his clock, only to find that it was 7:01. He looked up to his neighbor smirking at him. That little shit.

He closed the door and started walking to the living room, where Adam encountered a very excited Opal clutching, again, the Uilleann pipes that would soon cause his death. She rushed to hug him, and after he’d returned the embrace, she sat quickly on a metal stool that looked a little out of place in the middle of the rustic furniture.

“We were waiting for you so I could start practicing!” she said, smiling widely. _Kerah_ stood by her side, smiling in the same way but looking a lot more malicious and deadly than Adam had expected.

“Yeah?” he said, trying his best to look as reassuring as possible. “Well, I’m here. What are you going to play first?”

“It’s, uh…” She looked at the man on her side for help, but when he said nothing she just carried on, “It’s Caoineadh Cu Chulainn. Kerah has been teaching me to play it”

He messed up her hair as a sign of affirmation, and after glaring at him and repositioning her skull cap again, Opal started playing.

It was awful.

Adam wanted to cringe really badly, but was fighting it with all of his might. He’d researched the difference between Uilleann pipes and regular bagpipes, so he knew that it could’ve been worse, she could’ve been playing regular bagpipes; it still didn’t help the acute buzzing on his good ear or the headache he felt coming. It felt like an eternity had passed until the song finally ended, an eternity in which he’d held continuous eye contact with his neighbor, who looked like he couldn’t have been having a better time than this. Adam didn’t know what annoyed him more, that he was capable of standing by Opal’s side without even flinching, or that he looked so handsome when he was having fun torturing another person with music.

“So? What did you think?” Opal asked, beaming with excitement.

Adam sighed internally.

“It was great” he replied, smiling. The little girl cheered, and then looked at _Kerah_. The man rolled his eyes before answering.

“It was shit” he sentenced. For a second, Adam felt panicked at what Opal’s reaction would be. How could this guy be so mean to her? And not feel bad about it? “But we’ll keep practicing, so there’s that”.

Opal didn’t seem to expect any other answer from his part, and she frowned and stuck her tongue out at him.

“ _Kerah_ , can I bring the cookies?” she asked, seemingly unaffected by the harsh comments she’d just received. Kerah nodded, and after throwing her pipes right next to Adam’s place on the couch, she ran towards the kitchen, where plates began clattering around.

“Why’d you keep lying to her?” Adam was a little surprised that the man was talking to him. He’d thought, for some reason, that they would just sit across each other in silence, waiting for Opal to come back. He was suddenly a little nervous. This guy’s stare was piercing in a way he’d rarely seen before.

“I just…” he ran a hand through his head, and the man didn’t seem as steely anymore “I just think it’s important not to get a child’s morale down. And if she keeps practicing… It’ll eventually be true, right?”

A beat of silence went through them. Adam didn’t feel as intimidated as before, but he also didn’t feel as if he was completely relaxed either. He resolved to just wait until Opal got back here, what could be taking her so long anyway?

“Ronan Lynch” he said. Adam stared. He stared back.

“Excuse me?”

“My name’s Ronan Lynch. I’m Opal’s guardian and music teacher” the carefully worded sentence told Adam this was probably a test of some kind.

“Pleasure to meet you, Ronan” he offered, sticking his hand out for Ronan to shake. He complied. Just as he was about to offer some kind of fact about himself, Opal came out of the kitchen with two poorly balanced cookie plates.

“Here! Kerah and I baked them for you!” she announced proudly. Adam took the cookie that was offered to him, and prayed that he wouldn’t die poisoned by a little girl, who was looking at him expectantly as she waited for his opinion.

“These are great!” Adam said, sounding surprised but not enough so that Opal would notice and take offense. Ronan, though, smirked in that dangerous way of his.

“Great as in Opal’s music, or actually great?” he said. This earned him a screech and a punch on his shoulder which, by the looks of it, was actually hard enough to make him wince playfully “Ouch! You little brat!”

Opal started running away, but Ronan caught her in time and started tickling her on the floor, which elicited a scream in a language Adam didn’t know, but sounded vaguely familiar.

“What is she _saying_?” he asked, amused enough to let his accent make an apparition on the last word. Ronan perked up at this, and Opal took it as an opportunity to kick him away from her and lock herself inside her room.

“It’s- it’s latin” he said, out of breath. Adam wondered what kind of kid would know how to speak latin well enough to still be able to scream in it while being tickled. At least, this solved the mystery of _What Damn Language Is My Neighbor Speaking_ that had been going on for a while.

Before Adam could reply to that, however, a bird (a raven?) flew into the room and perched itself into Ronan’s shoulder, Opal running right behind it.

“Shithead! Leave Chainsaw alone!” Ronan said, taking the bird on his hand and lifting it out of Opal’s reach. The kid screeched once more and sat down on the metal stool she’d been on while playing the pipes.

Adam didn’t know what was the funniest part about this, but the truth was, he suddenly could _not_ stop laughing. This seemed to stop whatever kind of discussion was starting around him, as Ronan stared at him with an expression he couldn’t exactly place, and Opal started laughing with him.

He could get used to this. It was nice.

 

 

Thursdays went by and Adam kept his newfound habit of hanging around Ronan’s apartment in the afternoon. It was a great distraction from work, and he found that he actually _wanted_ to hang around Ronan and Opal, as long as they’d allow him.

Some days were great, in the sense that after Opal stopped playing her awful music, they watched TV together, baked stuff or even went out to eat, sometimes. Other days were not so great, and this was entirely Ronan and Adam’s fault. After spending many days at his place, Adam had noticed that he and Ronan had a really strong tendency to fight about the smallest things. It wasn’t as if they were actually a couple, but they acted like one anyway, like the time when Adam had brought a guy home, and Ronan had been weird about it for days afterwards. Or the time Adam had been so stressed because of work that he’d snapped at Ronan, and Ronan had snapped back, and they hadn’t talked for a week. Or the time Ronan hadn’t allowed Adam to pay his part of dinner, and they fought about it so much that Opal smacked them both to end the argument.

It was weird between them from time to time, because sometimes, Adam could _swear_ Ronan stared at him for a beat too long, or that he made up excuses to sit by his side while watching TV and brush against his side casually. It wasn’t as if this bothered him, on the contrary, he wanted to know because then he’d be able to do _something_ about it.

“You should just date him” said Henry, an occasional addition to his lunch dates with Blue and Gansey. His spiky hair was currently covered with a hat, since the day was so cold that even Henry, the king or _Fashion Before Comfort, Sweetie_ had had to accommodate his outfit around the weather.

“That’s what I keep telling him!” said Blue, throwing her hands in the air.

“Guys, Adam knows what he’s doing” sighed Gansey, looking at Adam sympathetically from his seat. “If he says it’s not like that, then it’s not”.

“Gansey-Man, excuse me if I don’t trust your judgement here, but you didn’t ask Blue out for a year because you thought she hated you” said Henry, rolling his eyes. He raised a hand to stop Gansey from replying to his comment and turned to Adam again “Adam, look. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Maybe you stop talking. So what? You went _years_ without meeting him, surely you can manage to avoid him for some more”.

“Henry, I love you, but that’s terrible advice” said Blue, leaning her forehead on the table in a defeated gesture.

“It is” Adam sighed.

The conversation didn’t make its way back to Adam’s mind until Thursday. Opal had been following her usual routine of Uilleann pipe practice and after a while, she got tired, so she asked Adam to stay and watch some movies with her and Ronan. Adam had quickly done the calculations to ensure he didn’t need to wake up extra early tomorrow and decided to stay. It was in the middle of watching _Coco_ that Opal fell asleep, and Ronan thought it would be a better idea to put her to bed instead of letting her sleep in the couch. While he tucked her in, Adam tried to tidy up the place a little, and carried some glasses and dirty plates to the kitchen. It wasn’t unusual for him to wander around Ronan’s apartment anymore. He couldn’t remember how they’d come to this trusting with each other, but he could say that he liked it very much.

Adam had just started washing the dishes when Ronan’s voice made him jump.

“Parrish, leave that alone” he said dismissively, while he started rummaging in one of the drawers. He was exposing his back to Adam, in a position that allowed him to gape shamelessly to his tattoo. That had been something that interested him about Ronan right from the beginning. He often wondered if it was a bad thing to imagine someone’s tattoo that frequently, specially if they were just friends. Or even less. Adam still didn’t know how to read Ronan completely; there were times in which he felt so confused about Ronan’s attitude that he wondered if he knew him at all. Logically, he knew the answer was yes. He wouldn’t allow anyone to hang around his apartment (and Opal, for that matter) that much if he didn’t like them.

But he couldn’t help but wonder. It was something Adam, man of reason, did a lot of.

“I just wanted to help you clean up the place a little bit” he said, drying his hands on a nearby dish towel.

“Yeah, but you’re the fucking guest” Ronan replied, seemingly done with whatever he was looking for in that drawer. They stared at each other for a while, and Adam couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face.

“Am I still a guest if I spend every Thursday here?” he asked, leaning on the counter behind his back. The movement made him remember his chapped hands with a jolt of pain, but he quickly fixed that problem by cradling them together on his lap.

“Yep. Still the fucking guest. Sorry, Parrish” Adam laughed openly at that. Well, as openly as he dared, considering Opal was asleep. “Take this” Ronan said, and that was the only warning he got before he threw a small canister his way. He was barely able to catch it, but once it was in his hands, Adam brought it closer to his face, so he could read the small label on top.

_Manibus. For your hands._

The first thing that occurred to Adam was that he didn’t know what Ronan did for a living. Did he work making hand cream? The second thing that occurred to Adam was that Ronan must have noticed his dry hands, at least enough to have thought about giving him some cream. It felt a little embarrassing, did he think Adam couldn’t take care of that on his own?

The third thing that occurred to Adam was that the gesture, even if it made him feel conflicted, was incredibly sweet.

Ronan must have felt Adam’s hesitation towards his gift, because when a couple moments went by without any actual comment about it, he cleared his throat and looked at his feet.

“Look, it’s not as if I think you can’t buy some cream for yourself-- which you apparently can’t, if I’m being honest” he said, frowning a little, “but if you’re gonna insist on washing my fucking dishes then the least I can do is to offer you some cream because, let me be clear, I do not want your gross blood all over my dishes. If you don’t want it though, you can just leave it somewhere, it’s fine--”

_Adam, look. What’s the worst thing that could happen?_

“No, no” he interrupted him, “I… I like it. It’s great, actually”

He could lose a friend, he could lose Opal. He could lose these amazing Thursdays and a great pair of neighbors with the weirdest bird he’d ever seen, and an annoying habit of practicing obscure instruments while he tried to work. He could lose one of the things he liked the most about his life right now. Most importantly, he could lose the man he was in love with.

“Great as in Opal’s music or great as in actually--?”

Adam Parrish was a creature of logic and reason. But he’d be damned if he let that get on his way.

The moment Adam kissed Ronan was the moment he knew he had made the right choice.

 

 

“Are you--Are you seriously telling me” Adam wheezed, clutching his stomach as he was finally able to stop laughing “That you spent _all these weeks_ teaching her how to play fucking---”

“If I didn’t know you’re actually hearing impaired I would be asking if there’s something wrong with your ears right now” Ronan said, smiling fondly at Adam, who was laughing again “For the hundredth time, yes, I taught her _that_ fucking song”

“I wanna listen to it!” he said, clutching Ronan’s arm “Please, Ronan, tell Opal that I wanna--”

“Shut the fuck up” Ronan chuckled, pushing Adam’s face away from him. “Opal!” he yelled anyway “Come show Adam that new song you learned last week!”

There was a crash from one of the rooms, and, coincidentally, Opal came out of it running excitedly with her Uilliann pipes on hand, already making them screech without really meaning to.

“Adam, look! Kerah taught me this song and-“

“Urchin, he can’t look, he has to _listen_ ” Ronan said, in a tone that convinced Adam this wasn’t the first time Ronan corrected her on this.

“Yeah, _I know_ ” Opal replied, rolling her eyes. When it looked like Ronan was about to say something back, she started playing the most horrendous melody Adam had ever heard.

It went on for a few minutes, and Adam found it near impossible to stop laughing even for a second. Opal, thankfully, didn’t seem to be brought down by his reaction. If anything, she looked overjoyed with the prospect of making Adam laugh. By the time she was finished, she came near to Adam.

“So? Did you like it?”

“It was just splendid” Adam replied, drying his tears from his face. He turned to face Ronan, and he draped an arm over his and Opal’s shoulders “I can’t believe you taught her to play Never Gonna Give You Up with the pipes”.

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it! I'm so glad i was able to finish this thing. Can you believe I intended it to be only 1k long? Funny how things change. Anyway, let me know if you enjoyed it! :) I very much appreciate suggestions and feedback of any kind, honestly. (You should seriously listen to bagpipes and then Uilleann pipes. The difference is huge).


End file.
